


Hope is the Light, the Dawn, and the Flame

by FalconFate



Series: Tag Team [3]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: ALSO HI I'M BACK, Brotherly Bonding, Family Bonding, Gen, He has so many dads and NONE OF THEM ARE MORZAN OKAY, He's either Bromsson or Tornacsson, I'm so tempted to put his character tag as Murtagh Bromsson but I know no one will look for it, both riders are bonded to both dragons, dragon and rider bonding, in case it's not clear, the dragons will be named in this fic eventually, unorthodox dragon and rider pairing arrangements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23771602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconFate/pseuds/FalconFate
Summary: Brom finds himself saddled with far more responsibility than he had bargained for, and has to reorganize his plans to keep his old promises while also keeping his family safe. That does not diminish the fact that he is so incredibly proud of his boys.
Relationships: Brom/Selena
Series: Tag Team [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1052738
Comments: 11
Kudos: 68





	Hope is the Light, the Dawn, and the Flame

**Author's Note:**

> I'm baaaaaaack!!! With more cute bby dragons!!!

Brom paced the kitchen, scowling and grumbling and twirling knots into his beard—something he only did when he was worried. Eragon and Murtagh sat at the kitchen table; Murtagh watched their father like a hawk, while Eragon was still more or less asleep, yawning profusely. On the table itself was a plate of jerky strips, which the two little dragons were happy to work together to empty. Selena had disappeared into the master bedroom a while ago, announcing that she had to find something.

Many of Brom’s words seemed to be in an entirely different language. Murtagh tried to puzzle them out in his head, but could find no matching words in his own vocabulary that made sense. “Dad,” he said quietly, “what’s going on?”

Brom paused. Then he sighed. “The two of you were supposed to stay safe,” he muttered. “This is… not safe.”

Eragon yawned again. “Whaddya mean, safe?” he said. “Safe from what?”

“The war. The king. Everything beyond the Spine,” Brom gestured in the Spine's general direction, then ran a hand over his face. “I gave the Varden the other one, but they never told me if it hatched, or if they’d even progressed their rebellion further than a few border skirmishes. Hell, for all I know, they’ve all been killed and Galbatorix forced the dragon to hatch for one of his servants. And there’s certainly no chance I’m letting you leave the valley until these two can hunt for themselves,” he said brusquely, gesturing to the hungry hatchlings on the table. “If I could get word to the elves—”

“All of you hold still!” Selena ordered, appearing suddenly in the doorway with a stack of slates in her hands. A delighted smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she focused on the room, muttering strange words under her breath. 

“Is now the time, Selena?” Brom asked with a sigh.

“Now is always the time,” she answered crisply. “Stand still.” She shuffled the slates in her arms, then set them on the table, well away from the dragons; then she lifted one and murmured the strange words again. Eragon, still mostly asleep, was startled when what he thought was a plain, drab gray slab suddenly became a perfect likeness of the two dragons on the table.

“You’ll want to save those,” Brom warned. “I have it on good authority that dragons are adorable at every age.”

“Oh, just one more,” Selena said playfully, leaning into Brom’s side as she picked up a new slate. “Alright, boys, if you could just look here… can I get the hatchlings to pay attention?”

Brom leaned forward and swiped some of the jerky from the plate, exciting the dragons. The blue one reared up on its hind legs and flapped its little wings, crowing indignantly, while the red one’s eyes grew huge and it lunged after the escaping food with wide jaws.

And that was the pose that Selena captured, with the boys in the background wearing matching startled grins.

* * *

“Well, since we can hardly put the little ones back in their eggs, I might as well impart some of my knowledge on you boys,” said Brom, lighting his pipe. He’d taken the brothers and their dragons into a clearing in the woods; Garrow and Roran had not yet met the new additions to the family. Eragon and Murtagh sat cross-legged on the ground, occasionally reaching out and pulling one of the dragons back into their laps. Brom sat on a tree stump in front of them. “First of all, have you begun communicating with them yet?”

“Communicating? What do you mean?” asked Eragon. “We talk to them all the time.”

Brom tapped his temple with his pipe. “With your minds,” he clarified.

Murtagh frowned. “You mean without actually talking?”

Brom nodded.

Eragon’s eyes grew very wide. “Dragons can read minds?” he asked, awestruck.

“I’ve told you this, haven’t I?” Brom said impatiently. “All those stories—did I not mention anywhere that dragons speak telepathically?”

“You said they spoke without words! I thought you meant the way horses use body language!” Eragon exclaimed.

“Well, then that’s my fault for not clarifying, your mistake for not asking for clarification,” Brom grumbled tetchily. “That’s not the point. No, they can’t _read_ your mind—they can invade your mind, certainly, and forcibly take information if they so desired, and if you did not properly defend it. That defense is something I have already taught you.”

“Is that what ‘defensive meditation’ is supposed to be?” Murtagh asked.

“Yes,” said Brom. He continued, “Mostly, dragons use their gift to talk to each other. You might have noticed that dragons don’t exactly have human tongues. Our languages are not easy for them to learn. So the Dragon Riders, as well as elves and most anyone else who uses magic, learned to communicate with their minds like dragons.”

“So how do we do that?” Eragon asked. 

“Well, let me show you,” Brom said, a little impatiently. _It’s like this._ His voice was suddenly in their heads, as loud and clear as if he’d spoken directly into their ears. 

Eragon gaped, wide-eyed. “Wooooooah. _We_ can do that?”

Murtagh squinted at Brom, scrunching his nose in thought. “Have I done this before? I feel like I’ve done this before.”

Brom nodded. “When you were little. Do you remember the blue stone I let you keep while we were… travelling?”

“Hmm.” Murtagh gnawed on his lower lip, his eyes narrowed in concentration. “Kind of.” He gave Brom a doubtful look. “For some reason I remember it wanted me to look at Eragon.”

Eragon whipped his head around to stare at Murtagh in confusion. “What?”

“When you were a baby. You were a very cute baby.” Murtagh ruffled his brother’s hair, grinning widely. “You’re still very cute, don’t worry.” 

Eragon squawked in protest and swatted his brother’s hand away. The blue dragon sitting in his lap was delighted by this new game they were playing, and leapt up to whack Eragon’s face with its taloned front paws, squeaking in mad delight as Eragon spluttered and fell back from his seat. The red dragon watched attentively from Murtagh’s lap, and as Murtagh doubled over in peals of laughter, its little red snout poked curiously at the strands of dark hair that brushed its wings. 

Brom watched them with a heavy scowl that would have been mightily impressive, were it not for his beard that twitched as he suppressed his own smile. “If you lot are quite finished,” he finally said loudly, recapturing at least the boys’ attention—the little blue dragon was still stretching its paws up to bat Eragon’s chin. He raised an eyebrow at them. “Finished? Good. That blue stone is not _just_ a stone, but I am not at liberty to tell you what it actually is, so don’t ask. You may be lucky enough to one day learn, but that day is not today. However, Murtagh, you are correct, you have had experience with this kind of communication before. Your mother and I are both practiced in this skill, and we decided some years ago that if we were to teach you boys, we would wait until you were both of age. Fortunately, Eragon’s sixteenth birthday is not far away, so this is not wholly against our original plans.”

As Brom paused to take a breath, Eragon quickly asked, “But why wait? Especially if Murtagh had already experienced it?”

“To keep you both safe. Opening the mind is a dangerous thing,” Brom said gravely. “To reach out, you must lower the shields you already naturally carry. Your mother and I taught you to defend your minds first and foremost because we wanted you to be _safe._ When human children learn to speak and communicate with their minds, they often lack the control to retreat back into their own minds, or they lack the understanding of why they should, especially if they’re around other children who haven’t learned the same skill. On that note, we also wanted to keep up some semblance of normality; both your mother and I were once fairly prominent figures in the struggle between the Empire and the Varden, and word getting out of two brothers who can communicate with their minds would have brought soldiers or worse on our heads to investigate. And we didn’t want to worry you with that possibility,” he added gently, guessing the protest Eragon had been about to voice.

He had guessed rightly, and Eragon deflated. Murtagh, while absentmindedly tickling the red hatchling’s chin, asked, “Are these dragons at risk of the same dangers? Of not retreating into their minds?”

“Somewhat,” Brom admitted. “But we’re not going to go into town and announce that they’ve hatched, or that they even exist, for that matter. And for the most part it will be you boys, myself, and your mother communicating with them while they grow—and each other, of course. I suspect they’ve already formed a strong bond,” he chuckled, nodding to where the blue one had turned its attention from Eragon’s face to the red one’s tail, which was deftly avoiding every swipe of the blue one’s claws. "And that's aside from that fact that dragons naturally communicate with their minds, and thus have an intuitive understanding of the nuances and dangers involved."

“Will we name them?” Eragon asked suddenly.

“ _Can_ we name them?” Murtagh added, a little desperately. “I hate to just call them ‘blue one’ and ‘red one.’ All the dragons in your stories have names, don’t they? Even the ones without riders.”

Brom nodded. “Even wild dragons often have names, that’s true,” he agreed. “You should wait to name them, give them a chance to name themselves. It won’t be long before they start to speak to you; they may give you their name then, or they may ask you for input.”

“Input? You mean, they may not even use what we suggest?” Eragon asked, surprised.

“Of course, boy!” Brom shook his head. “Dragons are just as intelligent and single-minded as you or me, and probably even more so. They’re not _pets._ They may share a part of your souls, and they may be your partners, but they have their own souls to look after, and they are your equals.” His voice grew serious, and even the dragons seemed to start paying attention, both of them turning their big, bright eyes to Brom. “Just as the two of you are inseparable and entwined, and yet each wholly different from the other, so will these dragons be to you. Remember that,” he said softly; and in his eyes, his sons could see a great, gaping sadness that they had seen before, in rare glimpses when he thought they weren’t looking hard enough. 

And yet, that same abyssal sadness was tempered with a new light, a light that shone red and blue, a light that swelled with all the warmth and pride that had overflowed from his chest as he’d watched Murtagh and Eragon grow up. The brothers and dragons all silently came to the same conclusion: that light was hope, and it was beautiful. 

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so I maaay be projecting some of my riding instructor's common phrases onto Brom, but shhhhh. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are, as always, super appreciated! Y'all better be staying safe and well!


End file.
